Towards a digital adolescent society? The social structure of the Icelandic adolescent blogosphere

Abstract

The adolescent production of blogs has created an adolescent public sphere that transcends both intimate circles of friends and the adolescent communities of specific schools or neighborhoods. Almost all 15-16 year old adolescents in Iceland regularly read blogs and many read blogs on a daily basis. Blogs by best friends and adolescents in the concrete adolescent community are most popular but a third of the population follows blogs that originate in the more abstract adolescent society. About three out of four girls and one out of three boys maintain their own blogpages and read blogs by other adolescents on a regular basis. Adolescents that write blogs are more involved in various activities associated with higher status in adolescent communities but lower status in the adult-controlled school community. The adolescent blogosphere may constitute an emergent digital adolescent society where inequalities in adolescent communities are reproduced.